Judge Threatens to Strike Fani Willis’s Testimony If She Continues Not to Answer Questions Directly

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was admonished by Judge Scott McAfee for not answering questions directly on the witness stand Thursday, who even threatened to strike her testimony from the record if she continued to be evasive.

The rebuke came during a back-and-forth about whether Nathan Wade — the man Willis was dating and hired to help conduct the prosecution of Donald Trump and his co-conspirators in a 2020 election case — visited her where she was living.

“So you said 2019, 2020. Did Mr. Wade ever visit you at a place that you resided?” asked Ashleigh Merchant, a lawyer for one of the defendants.

“He has never been to my home in South Fulton. 2020 was before I knew that a phone call was going to be made, and I was going to have to abandon my home. As a result thereof, he never visited lived at, came to, or has seen South Fulton,” answered Willis.

The conversation proceeded apace:

MERCHANT: You qualified that with your home in South Fulton, I’m asking —

WILLIS: That’s where I lived in 2020!

MERCHANT: In 2020 did he ever visit you at a place that you resided?

WILLIS: Okay, I don’t understand, you’re gonna have to give me guidance. In 2020, I lived in South Fulton. That’s the only place I lived, in South Fulton. That’s before I had to abandon my home, Judge. And at my home in South Fulton —

[CROSSTALK]

MCAFEE: Ms. Willis, that’s, I’m gonna have to caution you. This is going to be my first time I have to caution you. You have to listen to the questions as asked, and if this happens again and again, I’m going to have no choice but to strike your testimony. So I need to break this down. Ms. Merchant’s question, I believe, is, asking whether you lived anywhere other than South Fulton.

Soon after, Willis admitted that Wade visited her at a condo she leased beginning in early 2021. Wade has been paid over $650,000 for his work on the Trump case.